Pottstown July 4th revival needs volunteers

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

The Pottstown Fourth of July Homecoming celebration went on for 30-plus years as a venue for area residents to celebrate the nation’s birthday in hometown style. A parade, queens, 5K race, food, games and entertainment brought people into town and brought families together in the spirit of Independence Day.

Events were capped off each year with a fireworks display that lasted 30 to 40 minutes, delighting the thousands who packed Memorial Park’s grassy lawns and fields or parked in nearby lots or sat out on rooftops in town.

The celebration was appropriately Pottstown in its patriotism and nostalgia. The only controversy each year was paying for it.

Begun in 1978 as a grass-roots celebration, the costs of the event, including a fireworks tab of more than $50,000 a year, were paid with money collected from $10 and $20 individual contributions. The incentive for donating was seeing your name printed in The Mercury “honor roll” of contributors.

The driving force for the planning and execution of the celebration was a loosely knit committee of townspeople — a driver for a local fire company, a business owner, a school board member, borough representatives, and the head of the parks and recreation department, as well as citizens and civic leaders.

As the core group got older and retired, the committee membership changed and volunteers were scarce. Celebration planning and fundraising went downhill, hitting rock bottom in early 2013 when there was no money in the coffers for a deposit on the fireworks.

A committee led by Pottstown Fire Marshal William J. Smale Jr. and his sister Marcia Levengood put together a parade last July 4th and raised enough money through a queens contest to pay for the parade. Pottstown Parks and Rec sponsored the 5K race, and there were Little League games in Memorial Park. But for the first time in 35 years, there were no fireworks in Pottstown.

Smale and Levengood said at the time they hoped to embark on fundraising during the year that would raise enough money to restore fireworks for this year, but that didn’t happen.

Recognizing a need for new direction, the group asked for some from the Leadership TriCounty Class of 2014, a project of theTriCounty Area Chamber of Commerce. A team of class members made recommendations including improved marketing, a stronger board and committee structure and clear and achieveable fundraising goals.

Whether or not that can be achieved will depend on people stepping up as volunteers to revive the July 4th celebration. Smale and Levengood are just two people: as the TriCounty leadership class noted, the success of this project demands a strong committee structure.

A year ago, we wrote: “Like so much in Pottstown, what has worked in the past may not work for the future. That’s not a death knell; it’s a call to action to find new ideas, to pitch creative solutions, and above all, to be involved.”

Come out, enjoy the parade, get involved, donate to the activities, and maybe we can restore fireworks for next year.

Donations to the Fourth of July can be sent to: Independence Day Ltd, P.O. Box 199, Pottstown, PA 19464. Donations to specific queens can be made by writing the contestant’s name on the check.